Posts Tagged ‘Formula D Seattle’

Formula Drift Round 5 at Evergreen Speedway has to be one of my favorite events all year (albeit, I'm biased as a Seattle local)! Not only is it my home town, but this race track has one of the biggest bankings in the series - and just like Irwindale Speedway, there's not much room for error. Everyone in the Northwest drifting community has witnessed a lot of crashes at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe WA throughout the years, and with something like 56 drivers registered for this event, we are sure to get one hell of a show this year! Read more...

Formula Drift in Seattle is definitely one of my favorite stops on the Formula D tour. It always happens in the middle of the summer, and summertime is the best time to visit Seattle anyway! The event planners at Formula Drift always seem to pick the FD Seattle weekend perfectly, when the rainy state of Washington is blessed with a little break from the gloomy rain, and the sun comes out to put everybody in a good mood!

Since most drift fans outside of Seattle were able to watch the event play-by-play on Justin.TV's Formula D Driftstream, Seattle-based MotorMavens sharpshooter Yoshi Shindo and I decided we'd post up photographic highlights from the event, based on our own experiences there! Read more...

Since Formula D Seattle, all the members of the crew have all been super incredibly busy handling all sorts of things related to the website and promotions, so we decided to hold off on our normal "event coverage" stories so that I could write different type of story - something more of a perspective piece. Normally, we always have Antonio write the event stories, because he seems to have the most experience, and he knows all the details of the drivers and everything. However, this time, the guys asked ME to write about my own personal experiences at FD Seattle.

This year's Formula D Seattle marks my first anniversary as a part of the Motor Mavens Crew. At last year's event, I didn't even know Antonio yet. In fact, I only met him at the end of the event, when he was out in the parking lot, chillin with our friends Ian Dillon and Raymond Vazquez.

I gotta say... this year has been one hell of a ride! Just in this past year, I've attended three other Formula D events, done multiple local drift event coverages, car features, cruises, meets, and everything else in between. As a local Seattle-based contributor for MotorMavens, my main goal was to blow up the Pacific Northwest scene since I know it has some of the sickest cars around! We also have some highly skilled drifters up here - such as Formula D drivers Roland Gallagher, Nikolay Konstantinov, Ian Fournier, and Victor Moore. Since this event was local, there was no doubt that all these guys would be attending. I knew this was going to be a great event! Read more...

Continuing our MotorMavens coverage with more images from Seattle, I think we should put the Top 32 drivers and points standings aside right now so we can all focus on the real reason why this year's trip to Seattle got me so hyped. The Pacific Northwest has a really strong grassroots drifting scene, and the Evergreen Pro Am really stood up to the hype, or lack thereof. That's right, I said lack - I don't think these Pro Am drivers get enough attention.

Pro Am drivers are the unsung heroes of professional drifting. Most of these guys don't have any sponsors to help with travel or car building expenses. Many don't even have much coveted tire sponsorships. However, they persistently and repeatedly show up time and time again to all the track events, paying their dues and showing what they're made of.

It just so happens that the Evergreen Pro Am drivers impressed me; not just because of their hard work and dedication to drifting, but because their cars have style... and it's the cars that get me hyped. I think I've seen enough stripped out ghetto built, busted up drift cars to last a lifetime. So let's shine a light on the cars and drivers of the Evergreen Pro Am. This is real drifting! Read more...

Our buddy Ross Fairfield from Dead Pirate Productions just sent us an AIM message about his new video from FD Seattle. Ross has been working overtime to put this video together because of some problems he was having with uploading to Vimeo FOUR TIMES (***ahem*** that’s why we use Streetfire ***ahem***).

Hey Ross – great work shooting, and we’re glad you put in all that editing and exporting work so we could watch your video! Ross just did a writeup about the video on Everything Drift so check it out for more info!

So I just received an email from my friend Eddi Hughes from Nissan Pacific and Evergreen Drift. We were all kicking it at Red Robin in Monroe after the FD Seattle event, but our conversation was unfortunately cut short because my friends wanted to leave asap to get to the afterparty (rolling my eyes right now) at Spitfire. Good looking out for sending me this link and for sending me those texts while we were at Formula D, Eddi!

Here’s a video of Formula D Seattle, showcasing work by a local Oregon-based videographer named Justin Shreeve (actually, I just noticed that Justin left some comments on our “Formula D Seattle Part 3” post too). Justin definitely has shooting and editing skills… people better keep an eye on him! I’ve been saying it for days… the Pacific Northwest is one of the most slept on areas of the United States for car building, driving, and media talent! We Motor Mavens need to help shed some light on the rainy Northwest!

Great job on the video, Justin. Nice to see some great work from up and coming videographers in the Evergreen scene! Hit us up! RESPECT!

Okay, it's already past 2am now, and I need to get to sleep because we have a long day at the track ahead of us tomorrow! But before I sleep, let me just throw a few quick photos up on the site!

Above, here's a real dope R32 Skyline 4door that came from British Columbia (that's Canada, to those of us who are ignorant Americans). More photos of this car coming soon!

It's so cool that you can register a car like an R32 Skyline, A31 Cefiro or C33 Laurel and just drive it on the street, legally in Canada. What the hell are we still doing living in Southern Cali, anyway? (Who am I kidding, I love Southern Cali...) Read more...

It's really, really late. I just got to the Formula D "host hotel" in Bothell, WA not too long ago, where tons of the Formula D tour regulars are sitting out in the lobby and outside patios with drinks in hand, being loud and cracking jokes, trying to unwind from a long day at the track.

However, some teams had a longer day at the track than others... when I arrived to the Formula D pit area, I noticed Robbie Nishida's Dynamic Autosports/Hankook Tire 350Z up on jackstands, in the dusty, dirt covered pit area of Evergreen Speedway. Apparently, just a few minutes before I arrived, Robbie's 350Z made contact with the wall on one of his practice runs, severely damaging the left side of his car. Above is a photo of the car, with hood, fender, and suspension off... as the Dynamic team hustles to collect parts to repair the car in time for tomorrow's main qualifying session. Read more...

Up here in Monroe, Washington… we’re still celebrating August 6th, Hachiroku Day!

I rolled up to Evergreen Speedway to check out Formula D practice with my homie Masaki today… but unfortunately, we got stuck in a ton of 360 area traffic, and missed most of the drifting practice runs. I have a few photos from the Formula D practice day today, but since it IS still August 6th, I thought I’d just post this photo right here.

This AE86 belongs to Trent Stromkins from Vancouver BC. You may recognize his name, as he’s the organizer of the Cellblock D drifting events in the Pacific Northwest area. Good luck to Trent and all the other North West guys competing in the Formula D Pro Am tomorrow!

The cars up here in the Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver area are SICK! Stay tuned to MotorMavens for more pics very soon! We need to head back to the track to meet up with our friends now!

:: Antonio Alvendia

PS: Does anyone know why the Jtuned site is down? I was trying to check out Allen Chu’s ASB photos on Jtuned today, but uhmm… ? Nevermind I guess?